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Priceline.com Informative - Got Ripped. And Got My Money Back - Airfare Purchases
Airfare Purchases
Before you get excited, I did not get my money back from Priceline directly. But read on and maybe you can use some of what I learned online and from lawyers.
I had used Priceline 4 times before to purchase airfare to Brazil without any problems. This last time I went through the usual process of entering my travel options and submitting my bid. I did this several times and never "won a bid" or found a suitable counter-offer.
By the way, this "counter-offer" system was more insistent and obscure than what my previous experiences had been, but I reasoned it was due to the fact that I was searching for a very specific price and Priceline was tryng to "help" me find a ticket. I found it profoundly irritating that their "counter-offers" were mixed in with the "bidding" process and did not know if it was poor design or an underhanded ploy to push people into accepting their "counter-offers".
In any case, I gave up trying to find my ticket through them but found out, a day later, that they had charged me for one of the so called "counter-offers"! The automated messages said I had accepted their counter-offer (even though it was double the amount of any of my bid attempts) and my credit card had been successfully charged. A call to their number reached only a recorded message that stated I had to wait (one or two days- I don't remember) before being able to speak to someone directly (even though my credit card had been charged immediately). When I finally managed to reach someone, the conversation was a script that I heard from every single employee/spokesperson I eventually contacted at Priceline. It all boiled down to: "Priceline does not offer refunds for any reason whatsoever; The policy is clearly explained; The system makes no errors, You included your signature (s.i.c. my initials)".
They ignored any reasoning and read (almost varbatim) from some manual. I found on the web a listing of names, numbers and addresses for officials at the company and called and sent certified mail with arguments. I never received any response from the letters and the "VPs" I spoke to read from the same script.
I started a Better Business Bureau case against them (they had been kicked out of the Better Business Bureau at the time). TO support my case, I only had evidence on my side, such as screen prints of many of my bids (gleaned from the browser history - this was all done in the 2 days following the beggining of this mess-) showing the amount of my bids and the discrepancy between what I was willing to pay and what they charged me, as well as the dates that eventually were sold. Priceline answered the Better Business Bureau inquiry with the same (!) words that had been read to me so many times in my conversations, regarding policy, acceptance and my initials. I sent them certified mail requests for their file logs of all transactions in my account so I could study in support of my case (I am a computer engineer), but never got any response.
At the same time I placed a dispute with my credit card company and spoke to practicing lawyers friends of mine. The path was: File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (done) , file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (done), file a charge dispute with the credit card company (done) and, eventually, file small claims suit against Priceline.
I eventually got refunded by my credit card company, let the BBB complaint lapse and never heard from the FTC. To this day I do not know if they simply paid Priceline and took the hit, or going agains the bank's laywers would have been counter productive to Priceline. But these are the main concepts I learned and which you should take into consideration:
1 - DO NOT USE PRICELINE. This is my personal advice, based on my personal experience with them. Do not even think about seeing what kind of offers they might have as you have to register your credit card information and you have little control of when you might be charged.
2 - Priceline is NOT in partnership with airlines. Your "bid" (now you will understand why I placed so many quotes in my report) is not a "bid". Priceline is a broker who purchases tickets in bulk, at a discount, from the airlines. They know exactly how much it cost them and how much they want. They overbook flights, so they can refuse a refund and there is someone else with the same ticket as you.
All this information was obtained by speaking to airline officials, something I did not tell you I tried to do as well. Apparently, at least the people I spoke to at American Airlines tell me they get many calls with similar stories as mine, but since they did not sell the ticket, there is nothing they can do.
3 - Their "we found a partner willing to sell you a ticket for $$$ counter-offer" is a blatant LIE. It is their ticket. There are no "partners". That is the amount they want.
4 - NEVER, EVER admit to the possibility that you clicked on any accept button or agreed to anything in any way. I am sure I never did that, but every person I related this information to suggested that I probably hit the "accept" button by mistake, which, it's important to note, DOES NOT MATTER to Priceline. I learned this from other reports in the internet.
This was, perhaps, the most irritating part of the story. This attitude that people have that corporations are highly moral and wouldn't try to cheat me out of my money or that their system malfunctioned. The only bad people are not shady characters lurking in the fringes of society!!!!
My lawyer friends told me that I was to NEVER even remotely consider the possibility of having made a mistake, even in friendly conversations with Priceline (when I was trying to convince them to do the right thing). They most certainly claim to have no glitches in their system (I even joked that their IT staff should work for the NSA, they were so perfect) and tried their damnest hardest to get me to admit to the possibility that I might have clicked on the "accept" button. If the case goes to court, they would have to provide me tons of technical reports regarding the stability and operability problems they might have had in the past, but if I ever said: "maybe I clicked on it. Your page is so confusing.." would be the same as having a smoking gun and blood all over me at the scene of a murder.
5 - RECORD your conversations. In my state, you are allowed to record conversations as long as one of the parties (yourself) is aware of it. DON'T tell them you are recording the conversation because that will be entered in their database and you will not be able to get any incriminatory or contradicting statements in conversations after that (if you even manage to speak to another human being at all). A suction cup microphone from Radio Shack costs $14.99 and you only bring out the recordings if things have to go to legal court.
6 - KEEP A PAPER TRAIL. I treat every financial transaction as if it is going to go bad. I know I have missed many good opportunities (things that were really good deals and I wanted them) because I could not find a way to satisfactory prove the agreement -should it not work out-. But since I cannot remember waht these good deals are and the Priceline experience seems to be burned in my brain, I rather miss out on some immediate satisfaction over going through a mess llike that (it's all about risk hedging. I just bought DIgital Camera that might not hava a warranty -it was a display model- but I am willing to loose the purchase money if the camera fails, the company does not honor the warranty, and I cannot easily argue my money back >>it was purchased on the manager's word that I would not have problems, should the camera malfunction<<).
7 - START A TIMELINE. As soon as problems arise, fire up your word processing app and put in dates, names, supporting evidence (voice recordings, copies of letters, web page screen captures), and summaries. Things are imprinted on your brain when it happens, but after a week, it can get hard or impossible to organize what happen with whom and when. This way you have a mcuh clearer picture and are able to articulate yourself better (another reason why I think the Priceline a**holes kept redding from the script. I am serious! They sounded like bad actors...).
So I am sorry that you got to this page because you got screwed by Priceline. I hope this information helps you. Please also publish your unpleasant experience with them and forward my case to anyone you think might end up hurt by this company's practices.
Best of Luck!
p.s. - In case you wondered, the bids I was offering were between U$700 and U$1200 for a trip starting in November or Mid-December, lasting into February or March. The ticket "I bought" was U$3150.00, leaving December 26 and returning January 12.
I had used Priceline 4 times before to purchase airfare to Brazil without any problems. This last time I went through the usual process of entering my travel options and submitting my bid. I did this several times and never "won a bid" or found a suitable counter-offer.
By the way, this "counter-offer" system was more insistent and obscure than what my previous experiences had been, but I reasoned it was due to the fact that I was searching for a very specific price and Priceline was tryng to "help" me find a ticket. I found it profoundly irritating that their "counter-offers" were mixed in with the "bidding" process and did not know if it was poor design or an underhanded ploy to push people into accepting their "counter-offers".
In any case, I gave up trying to find my ticket through them but found out, a day later, that they had charged me for one of the so called "counter-offers"! The automated messages said I had accepted their counter-offer (even though it was double the amount of any of my bid attempts) and my credit card had been successfully charged. A call to their number reached only a recorded message that stated I had to wait (one or two days- I don't remember) before being able to speak to someone directly (even though my credit card had been charged immediately). When I finally managed to reach someone, the conversation was a script that I heard from every single employee/spokesperson I eventually contacted at Priceline. It all boiled down to: "Priceline does not offer refunds for any reason whatsoever; The policy is clearly explained; The system makes no errors, You included your signature (s.i.c. my initials)".
They ignored any reasoning and read (almost varbatim) from some manual. I found on the web a listing of names, numbers and addresses for officials at the company and called and sent certified mail with arguments. I never received any response from the letters and the "VPs" I spoke to read from the same script.
I started a Better Business Bureau case against them (they had been kicked out of the Better Business Bureau at the time). TO support my case, I only had evidence on my side, such as screen prints of many of my bids (gleaned from the browser history - this was all done in the 2 days following the beggining of this mess-) showing the amount of my bids and the discrepancy between what I was willing to pay and what they charged me, as well as the dates that eventually were sold. Priceline answered the Better Business Bureau inquiry with the same (!) words that had been read to me so many times in my conversations, regarding policy, acceptance and my initials. I sent them certified mail requests for their file logs of all transactions in my account so I could study in support of my case (I am a computer engineer), but never got any response.
At the same time I placed a dispute with my credit card company and spoke to practicing lawyers friends of mine. The path was: File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (done) , file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (done), file a charge dispute with the credit card company (done) and, eventually, file small claims suit against Priceline.
I eventually got refunded by my credit card company, let the BBB complaint lapse and never heard from the FTC. To this day I do not know if they simply paid Priceline and took the hit, or going agains the bank's laywers would have been counter productive to Priceline. But these are the main concepts I learned and which you should take into consideration:
1 - DO NOT USE PRICELINE. This is my personal advice, based on my personal experience with them. Do not even think about seeing what kind of offers they might have as you have to register your credit card information and you have little control of when you might be charged.
2 - Priceline is NOT in partnership with airlines. Your "bid" (now you will understand why I placed so many quotes in my report) is not a "bid". Priceline is a broker who purchases tickets in bulk, at a discount, from the airlines. They know exactly how much it cost them and how much they want. They overbook flights, so they can refuse a refund and there is someone else with the same ticket as you.
All this information was obtained by speaking to airline officials, something I did not tell you I tried to do as well. Apparently, at least the people I spoke to at American Airlines tell me they get many calls with similar stories as mine, but since they did not sell the ticket, there is nothing they can do.
3 - Their "we found a partner willing to sell you a ticket for $$$ counter-offer" is a blatant LIE. It is their ticket. There are no "partners". That is the amount they want.
4 - NEVER, EVER admit to the possibility that you clicked on any accept button or agreed to anything in any way. I am sure I never did that, but every person I related this information to suggested that I probably hit the "accept" button by mistake, which, it's important to note, DOES NOT MATTER to Priceline. I learned this from other reports in the internet.
This was, perhaps, the most irritating part of the story. This attitude that people have that corporations are highly moral and wouldn't try to cheat me out of my money or that their system malfunctioned. The only bad people are not shady characters lurking in the fringes of society!!!!
My lawyer friends told me that I was to NEVER even remotely consider the possibility of having made a mistake, even in friendly conversations with Priceline (when I was trying to convince them to do the right thing). They most certainly claim to have no glitches in their system (I even joked that their IT staff should work for the NSA, they were so perfect) and tried their damnest hardest to get me to admit to the possibility that I might have clicked on the "accept" button. If the case goes to court, they would have to provide me tons of technical reports regarding the stability and operability problems they might have had in the past, but if I ever said: "maybe I clicked on it. Your page is so confusing.." would be the same as having a smoking gun and blood all over me at the scene of a murder.
5 - RECORD your conversations. In my state, you are allowed to record conversations as long as one of the parties (yourself) is aware of it. DON'T tell them you are recording the conversation because that will be entered in their database and you will not be able to get any incriminatory or contradicting statements in conversations after that (if you even manage to speak to another human being at all). A suction cup microphone from Radio Shack costs $14.99 and you only bring out the recordings if things have to go to legal court.
6 - KEEP A PAPER TRAIL. I treat every financial transaction as if it is going to go bad. I know I have missed many good opportunities (things that were really good deals and I wanted them) because I could not find a way to satisfactory prove the agreement -should it not work out-. But since I cannot remember waht these good deals are and the Priceline experience seems to be burned in my brain, I rather miss out on some immediate satisfaction over going through a mess llike that (it's all about risk hedging. I just bought DIgital Camera that might not hava a warranty -it was a display model- but I am willing to loose the purchase money if the camera fails, the company does not honor the warranty, and I cannot easily argue my money back >>it was purchased on the manager's word that I would not have problems, should the camera malfunction<<).
7 - START A TIMELINE. As soon as problems arise, fire up your word processing app and put in dates, names, supporting evidence (voice recordings, copies of letters, web page screen captures), and summaries. Things are imprinted on your brain when it happens, but after a week, it can get hard or impossible to organize what happen with whom and when. This way you have a mcuh clearer picture and are able to articulate yourself better (another reason why I think the Priceline a**holes kept redding from the script. I am serious! They sounded like bad actors...).
So I am sorry that you got to this page because you got screwed by Priceline. I hope this information helps you. Please also publish your unpleasant experience with them and forward my case to anyone you think might end up hurt by this company's practices.
Best of Luck!
p.s. - In case you wondered, the bids I was offering were between U$700 and U$1200 for a trip starting in November or Mid-December, lasting into February or March. The ticket "I bought" was U$3150.00, leaving December 26 and returning January 12.
Comments:
Posted by Doe3001 on 2006-07-25:
I don't know how much hope you can put in the BBB: read this: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff1343.htm
It seems they are there just to collect money and not actually help consumers.
It seems they are there just to collect money and not actually help consumers.
Posted by Doc J on 2006-07-25:
Poster-You exemplify the consumer that strikes terror into the hearts of predatory corporations. Every tactic you used is 100% effective. Visitors to m3c should bookmark your post as an introductory primer on how to self-manage a consumer dispute. In essence: admit nothing (even as a remote possibility), investigate and document everything like a good cop, and never back down from your position. Again, BRAVO! doe-Your take on the BBB is correct. They are entirely a toothless tiger. My3cents accomplishes as much in that the "ripped off" can vent here. The BBB does the same. Hats off to the poster for realizing this in the early stages of the dispute.
Posted by Anonymous on 2006-07-25:
Michel: Very good post and very helpful. Thanks for passing it on.
Posted by Anonymous on 2006-07-26:
Informative.
Posted by Michel on 2006-07-26:
I am glad my post has been helpful. Regarding the BBB, I agree that it seems to be powerless as the only enforcement mechanism they have is the reward of accreditation (or not). However good m3c is, the vast majority of consumers will post their problems through the national or local BBB, making it an important reference to the risk you take with any business. This means that I still urge everyone to file a complaint with the BBB (a quick online process) and the FTC, but would depend on your credit card company and small claims court (or regular court) to do any effective arm-wrestling of your money.
A long time ago I had a big dispute that I lost under a BBB mediation. I do not know if this is still the case, but at the time (1993) and place (N.Y. City), accepting the BBB mediation meant I gave up my right to escalate to a "real" judicial process. Since then, every dispute I had involved my credit card (and was resolved by my credit card company).
A long time ago I had a big dispute that I lost under a BBB mediation. I do not know if this is still the case, but at the time (1993) and place (N.Y. City), accepting the BBB mediation meant I gave up my right to escalate to a "real" judicial process. Since then, every dispute I had involved my credit card (and was resolved by my credit card company).
Posted by justus on 2006-08-03:
Ok, so you're a smart consumer! But do you know how the company works other than what you have here? The company records every call as well! See, they too are in a state that allows you to record calls, but they inform you of this when you first call in anyway. The airlines are "partners" with the company. They sign contracts with Priceline allowing them to use the airlines name, company logos and everything, so the airline employee you talked to doesn't know everything. Sometimes a customer does win a dispute, but a contract is a contract. So what if you are an IT person, not everyone is, and some people DO lie about hitting that accept button!! GET OVER IT AND READ WHAT YOU ARE DOING!! If you bid on something through Ebay and then won the bid, would you fight just as hard when you no longer wanted the item????
Posted by Michel on 2006-08-03:
Justus,
I do not know and do not need to know the inner-workings of the company other than what applies to my case.
We all know that companies record conversations. They state that conversations are to be recorded for training and quality control purposes and I do not know if any of these conversations have ever been used in a litigation. In the end it doesn't matter to me, as I will record and use the recordings if needed (but, as a by-line, what is your opinion regarding corporation's attitude once you tell them YOU are recording the conversation?).
I am glad you quoted the word "partners". Would you say that you are a "partner" with my3cents because you have posted here? Their (Priceline) usage of the word partner is intended to convey a sense that they have special arrangements and when a price you offered is refused (or accepted) is because one of their "partner companies" accepted it. They even have a little animation saying "we are contacting our partners with your offer" -or some such nonsense- when, in fact, they are just querying their database. A task that takes a few milliseconds.
The airline employees I spoke to don't know everything. They just knew that Priceline buys the tickets from them in bulk and that other people called the airline regarding the same situation I was in.
I mentioned the fact that I am an IT pro just to emphasize the fact that I am extremely detail-oriented and that I do not get "scared" or "confused" with menus, GUIs, etc...
Yes, I am sure that some people buy something and change their minds. All you have to do is go to a Walmart's customer service desk and see for yourself. That is neither my concern nor my problem as I did not change my mind nor made a mistake. But for the sake of argument, every company that I know has a return policy. Return policies have rules and regulations to prevent fraud and abuse (i.e. time limits and restocking fees). The ticket I was trying to purchase (and which they claim I bought) was 4 months in the future and I called Priceline the day after I found out I had been charged.
I did read everything.
E-Bay has never posted a bid I did not make, so your analogy is bad. Even more so because you don't seem to get that Priceline is not an auction site, but a store.But perhaps you were talking about PayPal, then all you have to do is Google "PayPal problems" and see that they only exist because E-Bay owns the company and created a virtual monopoly within the E-Bay payment system.
If you had followed the advice you are are YELLING OUT, you would have seen that I had used the company previously and would not have posted such a remark about me nor reading things. Moreover, don't tell people to get over anything. It's condescending. You obviously couldn't get over my post and did not offer any informative comment, which means you are either a troll or a priceline goon. In either case, you have provided me with a position that many people in the situation I was in will have to confront. Thus your post and my respones become an additional tool for people to see what kind of sh** they'll have to put up with.
I do not know and do not need to know the inner-workings of the company other than what applies to my case.
We all know that companies record conversations. They state that conversations are to be recorded for training and quality control purposes and I do not know if any of these conversations have ever been used in a litigation. In the end it doesn't matter to me, as I will record and use the recordings if needed (but, as a by-line, what is your opinion regarding corporation's attitude once you tell them YOU are recording the conversation?).
I am glad you quoted the word "partners". Would you say that you are a "partner" with my3cents because you have posted here? Their (Priceline) usage of the word partner is intended to convey a sense that they have special arrangements and when a price you offered is refused (or accepted) is because one of their "partner companies" accepted it. They even have a little animation saying "we are contacting our partners with your offer" -or some such nonsense- when, in fact, they are just querying their database. A task that takes a few milliseconds.
The airline employees I spoke to don't know everything. They just knew that Priceline buys the tickets from them in bulk and that other people called the airline regarding the same situation I was in.
I mentioned the fact that I am an IT pro just to emphasize the fact that I am extremely detail-oriented and that I do not get "scared" or "confused" with menus, GUIs, etc...
Yes, I am sure that some people buy something and change their minds. All you have to do is go to a Walmart's customer service desk and see for yourself. That is neither my concern nor my problem as I did not change my mind nor made a mistake. But for the sake of argument, every company that I know has a return policy. Return policies have rules and regulations to prevent fraud and abuse (i.e. time limits and restocking fees). The ticket I was trying to purchase (and which they claim I bought) was 4 months in the future and I called Priceline the day after I found out I had been charged.
I did read everything.
E-Bay has never posted a bid I did not make, so your analogy is bad. Even more so because you don't seem to get that Priceline is not an auction site, but a store.But perhaps you were talking about PayPal, then all you have to do is Google "PayPal problems" and see that they only exist because E-Bay owns the company and created a virtual monopoly within the E-Bay payment system.
If you had followed the advice you are are YELLING OUT, you would have seen that I had used the company previously and would not have posted such a remark about me nor reading things. Moreover, don't tell people to get over anything. It's condescending. You obviously couldn't get over my post and did not offer any informative comment, which means you are either a troll or a priceline goon. In either case, you have provided me with a position that many people in the situation I was in will have to confront. Thus your post and my respones become an additional tool for people to see what kind of sh** they'll have to put up with.
Posted by evezhang on 2006-10-30:
Hi Michel! I am running into the exact same situation as you. I bid two tickets at Priceline.com at $600+tax each last Wednesday and the website gave me two tickets at $1200 each saying it was the "counter offer". It is ridiculous that I would agree to buy tickets at $1200 when I was only bidding at $600. The customer service people were denying to help. Once they grab the money, they stick to it till the death. I contacted the BBB and FTC and my credit card company after I saw your message. My credit card company told me that it normally takes 60 days to dispute a charge and it may end up nothing. I am in an emergent situation because the tickets are for Dec 13. I wanted to cancel the two tickets and buy another two for Dec 12, only 43 days away. I was wondering how did your credit card company solved your problem and what specific steps did you take and how long did it take for the credit billing dispute. I am really helpless at the moment. $2400 is a huge huge loss! I don't think BBB/FTC/local consumers' council will do help. Credit card company is my only hope. But I have to buy another two tickets very soon! If you could let me know some of your experience or maybe send it to me via email, it would be great! My email address is "evezhang7 at hotmail dot com". As one of the victims of the Priceline, I really need your help!
Posted by Michel on 2006-11-01:
evezhan,
I never got anything from either the BBB and the FTC. Those complaints werr made solely to add to the historical data that other consumers may use in evaluating the company.
As to the steps I took with my credit card company (Citibank Mastercard):
1 - I called them whithin 2 days of the problem and disputed the charge.
2 - A credit for the charge was immediately placed on my account, pending resolution.
3 - I got a form from Citibank with instructions and information needed.
4 - I mailed:
a - The form
b - Printouts of all e-mails exchanges I had with the company (up to that point)
c - Using the browser history, I managed to open some of the pages where my offers were made and used print screen to create printouts showing the values I had been entering. I believe I ended up printing about 15 - 20 pages of offers and counter-offers (I really was looking for a specific price and was trying a whole range of date combinations).
d - A detailed (with the date, time and name of person I had spoken to) summary of any conversations I had had with PriceLine. In the end, I never needed to create written transcripts of the recordings I had made.
e - A copy of the (lower) ticket prices available at other sites (I think I used only the airlines sites, as I didn't want to risk signing up for another website like orbitz or expedia).
f - A detailed explanation of the absolute idiocy of me buying the tickets at that price when they were readily available cheaper elsewhere.
g - Printouts of posts in consumer sites of people with similar complaints to mine.
5 - Eventually (I think 1 - 2 months after the dispute started), Citibank contacted me 2 more times. One of them they asked for an additional written statement specifically saying that I had never authorized/bid the charge.
6 - After about5 months, I received a letter from citibank stating that the dipute had been resolved in my favor. I never asked nor found out if Citibank simply paid them and took the charge as customer service or if they disputed the charge and PriceLine backed down, or if they came to some kind of settlement.
7 - For those 5 months, my monthly statements showed a pending credit fo the amount in dispute. That charge never incurred interest nor was it calculated in the minimum payments.
I hope this helps you. My next step (which I never had to get to) would have been small claims court.
I never got anything from either the BBB and the FTC. Those complaints werr made solely to add to the historical data that other consumers may use in evaluating the company.
As to the steps I took with my credit card company (Citibank Mastercard):
1 - I called them whithin 2 days of the problem and disputed the charge.
2 - A credit for the charge was immediately placed on my account, pending resolution.
3 - I got a form from Citibank with instructions and information needed.
4 - I mailed:
a - The form
b - Printouts of all e-mails exchanges I had with the company (up to that point)
c - Using the browser history, I managed to open some of the pages where my offers were made and used print screen to create printouts showing the values I had been entering. I believe I ended up printing about 15 - 20 pages of offers and counter-offers (I really was looking for a specific price and was trying a whole range of date combinations).
d - A detailed (with the date, time and name of person I had spoken to) summary of any conversations I had had with PriceLine. In the end, I never needed to create written transcripts of the recordings I had made.
e - A copy of the (lower) ticket prices available at other sites (I think I used only the airlines sites, as I didn't want to risk signing up for another website like orbitz or expedia).
f - A detailed explanation of the absolute idiocy of me buying the tickets at that price when they were readily available cheaper elsewhere.
g - Printouts of posts in consumer sites of people with similar complaints to mine.
5 - Eventually (I think 1 - 2 months after the dispute started), Citibank contacted me 2 more times. One of them they asked for an additional written statement specifically saying that I had never authorized/bid the charge.
6 - After about5 months, I received a letter from citibank stating that the dipute had been resolved in my favor. I never asked nor found out if Citibank simply paid them and took the charge as customer service or if they disputed the charge and PriceLine backed down, or if they came to some kind of settlement.
7 - For those 5 months, my monthly statements showed a pending credit fo the amount in dispute. That charge never incurred interest nor was it calculated in the minimum payments.
I hope this helps you. My next step (which I never had to get to) would have been small claims court.
Posted by Sweetpea0925 on 2006-12-06:
I hate this company they lie and cheat. They switch hotels on you and refuse to help. Their customer service is the worse. They hang up on you and have a script they read from. I will never use this company again or any of the companies they are associated with.
Posted by tylerrd on 2009-03-13:
The same thing just happened to me. I was looking at flights from Greensboro to Tulsa. I did a search to see if I could get a better deal from Raleigh to Tulsa, I did not get much of a better offer, so I closed my browser because I had to go do something. The next time I logged on, I had a message saying that I had accepted their counter offer (which I NEVER DID!!!). I called priceline and informed them of this error on their part. They insisted I had, which I had not. They would not release it. They charged my credit card. I was thinking about arguing the charge with my credit card, I called my credit card and told them that I wanted to dispute a charge (total was ~300) and they told me I could and would likely be successful because I had never done so before. I ended up just begrudginling decided to use the ticket from Raleigh, and went on the trip.
Moral of the story don't use priceline.
Moral of the story don't use priceline.
Posted by Griggymonster on 2009-10-18:
they are very impersonal,and sneaky. I would never trust this company again.
Posted by Never use Priceline on 2013-06-11:
Purchased international tickets through Priceline, but never again will I ever use Priceline. They sold me tickets with a connecting flight with only a one hour lay over. Found out when I arrived at the airport that I could not check in any luggage. I could only take carry on luggage on a. 9 day cruise I Italy. There must be 2 solid hours between connecting flights. While at the airport we came across three other couples in the same situation and Priceline offered no assistance to solve the problem. When I asked About the travel insurance I purchased they said I could not use it as it was a "missed connection" issue with the airline. The airline said they always have issues with Priceline. NEVER USE PRICELINE OR RUSK HAVING A BAD VACATION
We made the most of our vacation and had a great time. Iam committing my time to help others avoid a similar situation.
We made the most of our vacation and had a great time. Iam committing my time to help others avoid a similar situation.
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